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EDITORIALS

Nov 29, 2008

Mr. Obama steps up

The standard response from any U.S. president-elect about his policies prior to inauguration is that there is only one president at a time. That deference is designed to avoid undercutting the current officeholder, to keep from marginalizing him and prevent confusion about who is in charge. President-elect...

EDITORIALS

Nov 28, 2008

Supplementary budget shelved

Prime Minister Taro Aso finally made it clear that he will not submit a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008, which is necessary to implement the ¥26.9 trillion economic stimulus package, to the current extraordinary Diet session. Instead, he will submit it to an ordinary Diet session to be convened...

EDITORIALS

Nov 28, 2008

Confusing remarks about grants

The Cabinet of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in May decided to free up road-related tax revenues from fiscal 2009 for use in such fields as education and social welfare. At the same time, it decided that care should be taken so that road construction is not hampered and that local governments do...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 28, 2008

Defense of an artist who had lived as a slave

By Norman Manea

NEW YORK — Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Europe. Liberated from the complexity of knowing too much about the cruel past, the young people of Eastern Europe's postcommunist generation seem uninterested in what their parents and grandparents endured.

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2008

Spoiling for a Tibetan fight

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — The Dalai Lama spoke in his customary platitudes, and the Chinese regime responded with its habitual bluster, but a corner was turned in the China-Tibet dispute last week. From now on, it's likely to get worse.

COMMENTARY

Nov 27, 2008

Time to get tough with Somali pirates

By Gwynne Dyer

On one side are the eight navies, the world's largest shipping companies, the rich Gulf states that need to get their oil to market, and the great powers, whose commerce depends heavily on the shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa. On the other side are a few thousand Somali pirates in small boats...

EDITORIALS

Nov 27, 2008

Accounting irregularities

The Board of Audit has detected 981 cases of inappropriate accounting in fiscal 2007 totaling ¥125.36 billion among government ministries and agencies, independent administrative agencies and local governments receiving financial support from the central government. The amount was the highest ever and...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 27, 2008

Letting the Big Three fail risks a meltdown

By Thomas I. Palley

WASHINGTON — The financial crisis that began in 2007 has been persistently marked by muddled thinking and haphazard policymaking. Now, the U.S. Treasury is headed for a mistake of historic and catastrophic proportions by refusing to bail out America's Big Three automakers.

EDITORIALS

Nov 27, 2008

Odd motive for stabbings

A man turned himself in to the Metropolitan Police Department Saturday evening, claiming that he had killed a former health and welfare vice minister. Ten knives were found in a rented minivan he drove to the MPD; two were bloodstained. Police initially arrested the 46-year-old for illegal possession...

EDITORIALS

Nov 26, 2008

An Asia-Pacific cheerleader?

The test of any institution is its response to crisis. By that benchmark the annual meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is found wanting. This year the 21 assembled grandees, whose countries represent more than 50 percent of global wealth, vowed to "act quickly and...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 26, 2008

Too much for the Earth to bear

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — The global financial crisis that has sent economies teetering from recession toward slump is preoccupying politicians and families worldwide, who see their livelihoods being snatched away by the consequences of the inventive greed of financial whiz kids.

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2008

Pirates feel the sting of India's naval muscle

By Ramesh Thakur

WATERLOO, Ontario — The rising might of India and the growing menace of piracy collided recently in the Gulf of Aden, a 2.59-million-square-km stretch of waterway between Somalia and Yemen. This came after India's demonstration of prowess in space with the successful launch of a lunar probe. As a symbol...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

By Megha Wadhwa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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